feeling has lately said that the recent Admiralty administration has been attended with the devil’s own luck. (Laughter.) That interesting personality (laughter)--his luck is due to one thing, and one thing only--hesitates at nothing to gain his object. That is what the Board of Admiralty have done, and our object has been the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for war; and we have got it. (Cheers.) And I say it because no one can have a fuller knowledge than myself about it, and I speak with the fullest sense of responsibility. (Cheers.) So I turn to all of you, and I turn to my countrymen and I say--Sleep quiet in your beds (laughter and cheers), and do not be disturbed by these bogeys--invasion and otherwise--which are being periodically resuscitated by all sorts of leagues. (Laughter.) I do not know what league is working this one. It is quite curious what reputable people lend themselves to these scares. This afternoon I read the effusions of a red-hot and most charmingly interesting magazine editor. He had evidently been victimised by a _Punch_ correspondent, and that _Punch_ correspondent had been gulled by some Midshipman Easy of the Channel Fleet. He had been there. And this is what the magazine editor prints in italics in this month’s magazine--that an army of 100,000 German soldiers had been practising embarking in the German Fleet. The absolute truth is that one solitary regiment was embarked for manœuvres. That is the truth. To embark 100,000 soldiers you want hundreds and thousands of tons of transport. You might just as well talk of practising embarking St. Paul’s Cathedral in a penny steamer. (Laughter.) I have no doubt that equally silly stories are current in Germany. I have no doubt that there is terror there that the English Fleet will swoop down all of a sudden and gobble up the German Fleet. (Laughter.) These stories are not only silly--they are mischievous, very mischievous. (Hear, hear.) If Eve had not kept on looking at that apple (laughter)--and it was pleasant to the eyes--she would not have picked it, and we should not have been now bothered with clothes. (Loud laughter.) I was very nearly forgetting something else that the _Punch_ correspondent said. I put it in my pocket as I came away to read it out to you. He had been a week in the Channel Fleet and he had discussed everything, from the admiral down to the bluejacket. He does not say anything about that Midshipman Easy. “In one matter I found unanimity of admission. It was that in respect to the number of fighting ships, their armament, and general capacity the British Navy was never in so satisfactory a condition as it floats to-day.” (Cheers.) So we let him off that yarn about the 100,000 German troops. (Laughter.) III.--THE HOUSE OF LORDS, NOVEMBER 16, 1915.